An undisclosed institutional seller surprises investors by launching a deal after the Hong Kong market had its worst fall in six months, but thanks to a generous discount, the demand was fairly solid.

An unidentified institutional shareholder has raised HK$1.87 billion $240 million from the sale of units in Link Real Estate Investment Trust, the first block trade in Asia in two weeks. The deal, which was launched at about 7.15pm on Wednesday, took the market by surprise as it came on a day when the Hang Seng Index fell 3.2% its worst session in six months and as investors were mostly focused on taking risk off their books.